The genus Enterococcus includes currently 27 described species. From the human clinical point of view, E. faecalis and/or E. faecium are the most important species: E. faecalis, and E. faecium together make up 95% of all nosocomial enterococcal infections distributed respectively as 80 to 90% and 5 to 10%. Occasionally E. casseliflavus and E. gallinarum are isolated.
Enterococci are increasingly recognized as common causes of infection that become difficult to treat because of both inherent and acquired antibiotic resistance.
Effective control of E. faecalis and/or E. faecium within the hospital and community requires more aggressive measures that include earlier diagnosis of colonized patients, in other words, that include a step of screening.
Moreover, several of the recently described species do not conform to the phenotypic characteristics used up to now for their identification. It is therefore necessary and urgent to provide more rapid methods of detection and/or identification, using probes and/or primers more sensitive and more specific.